{"id":57541,"date":"2024-09-04T20:16:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T20:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dinsmore.com\/?post_type=publications&#038;p=57541"},"modified":"2025-11-24T17:43:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T17:43:34","slug":"federal-circuit-reiterates-the-urgency-of-opting-for-patent-protection-or-trade-secrecy-as-the-on-sale-bar-to-patentability-looms","status":"publish","type":"publications","link":"https:\/\/www.dinsmore.com\/publications\/federal-circuit-reiterates-the-urgency-of-opting-for-patent-protection-or-trade-secrecy-as-the-on-sale-bar-to-patentability-looms\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Circuit Reiterates the Urgency of Opting for Patent Protection or Trade Secrecy, as the On-Sale Bar to Patentability Looms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dinsmore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Patent-protection-Header.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Under 35 U.S.C. \u00a7 102, the \u201con-sale bar\u201d invalidates a patent if an inventor has sold or made the invention publicly available more than one year before filing the patent application.<a href=\"#_edn1\" id=\"_ednref1\">[i]<\/a> Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided <a href=\"https:\/\/cafc.uscourts.gov\/opinions-orders\/22-1827.OPINION.8-12-2024_2365402.pdf\"><em>Celanese Int&#8217;l Corp. v. International Trade Commission<\/em><\/a>, and held to the traditional rule that the on-sale bar clock starts when an inventor sells a product made with a patented process. Therefore, a patent for a process will be invalid if such a sale occurs more than a year before the patent filing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What IP owners should know:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Inventors of new processes have only one year to file for patent protection of their new process once they sell a product made with that process (or they sell the process itself).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Celanese<\/em> emphasizes the need for inventors of new processes to decide between patent protection and trade secrecy early on, preferably BEFORE offering any product for sale.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>If the process will eventually require disclosure to fully exploit; or if its products make the invented process vulnerable to reverse-engineering, seeking the legal monopoly of a patent is likely best.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If patentability of the process is uncertain for other reasons, or if the process can be kept confidential and presents potential value beyond what a 20-year patent term would provide, trade secrecy may provide a better alternative.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Conversely, a party accused of infringing a patented process should investigate when the patentee first employed that process and sold a product resulting therefrom, as such sales more than a year before the patent filing date can provide an additional invalidity defense.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Case Summary: Celanese petitioned the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to stop another entity, Jinhe, from importing an artificial sweetener that Jinhe produced using a process that infringed Celanese\u2019s patent.<a href=\"#_edn2\" id=\"_ednref2\">[ii]<\/a> In defense, Jinhe argued that Celanese\u2019s patent was invalid due to the on-sale bar. Celanese had not sold the process\u2014the claimed invention in the patent itself\u2014or otherwise made it public more than a year before Celanese filed for its patent. But, critically, it had sold sweetener <strong><em>made from<\/em><\/strong> that process more than a year before filing.<a href=\"#_edn3\" id=\"_ednref3\">[iii]<\/a> Applying the same principles established before passage of the America Invents Act (AIA), the ITC agreed with Jinhe that Celanese\u2019s sale of a product of the claimed process, rather than of the process itself, activated the on-sale bar, invalidating Celanese\u2019s Patent.<a href=\"#_edn4\" id=\"_ednref4\">[iv]<\/a> Celanese appealed the ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Federal Circuit affirmed the ITC\u2019s determination that the on-sale bar applied, rejecting Celanese\u2019s arguments that the AIA changed what sales could implicate the on-sale bar.<a href=\"#_edn5\" id=\"_ednref5\">[v]<\/a> Though Celanese pointed to particular differences between the statutory language in the pre-AIA on-sale bar and that language post-AIA, the Federal Circuit found those differences immaterial. Rather, the purpose of the on-sale bar remained the same\u2014that inventors are not allowed to effectively extend their patent term by exploiting their invented process for over a year, and then seek patent protection sometime later, perhaps when it could further exploit the process by selling or disclosing it.<a href=\"#_edn6\" id=\"_ednref6\">[vi]<\/a> For that reason, the long-established rule that the sale of a product of a patented process can activate the on-sale bar continues to apply post-AIA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have any questions about this development or any other IP issues, your Dinsmore IP team is always happy to provide further insight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref1\" id=\"_edn1\">[i]<\/a> <em>See<\/em> 35 U.S.C. \u00a7 102(a) (stating the general bar to patentability for inventions previously on sale or available to the public.); 35 U.S.C. \u00a7 102(b) (excepting sales made by inventor in the year prior to the patent\u2019s filing date).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref2\" id=\"_edn2\">[ii]<\/a> No. 2022-1827, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 20186 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 12, 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref3\" id=\"_edn3\">[iii]<\/a> 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 20186, * 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref4\" id=\"_edn4\">[iv]<\/a> <em>Id<\/em>. at * *3\u20135.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref5\" id=\"_edn5\">[v]<\/a> <em>See id<\/em>. at **5\u201321.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref6\" id=\"_edn6\">[vi]<\/a> <em>See id<\/em>. at *7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Under 35 U.S.C. \u00a7 102, the \u201con-sale bar\u201d invalidates a patent if an inventor has sold or made the invention publicly available more than one year before filing the patent application.[i] Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided Celanese Int&#8217;l Corp. v. International Trade Commission, and held to the traditional\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"publication-type":[12],"class_list":["post-57541","publications","type-publications","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","publication-type-legal-alerts"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.5 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Federal Circuit Reiterates the Urgency of Opting for Patent Protection or Trade Secrecy, as the On-Sale Bar to Patentability Looms - Dinsmore &amp; Shohl<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Federal Circuit Reiterates the Urgency of Opting for Patent Protection or Trade Secrecy, as the On-Sale Bar to Patentability Looms Read insights and legal analysis from attorneys at Dinsmore &amp; Shohl LLP.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dinsmore.com\/publications\/federal-circuit-reiterates-the-urgency-of-opting-for-patent-protection-or-trade-secrecy-as-the-on-sale-bar-to-patentability-looms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Federal Circuit Reiterates the Urgency of Opting for Patent Protection or Trade Secrecy, as the On-Sale Bar to Patentability Looms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Federal Circuit Reiterates the Urgency of Opting for Patent Protection or Trade Secrecy, as the On-Sale Bar to Patentability Looms Read insights and legal analysis from attorneys at Dinsmore &amp; Shohl LLP.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dinsmore.com\/publications\/federal-circuit-reiterates-the-urgency-of-opting-for-patent-protection-or-trade-secrecy-as-the-on-sale-bar-to-patentability-looms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dinsmore &amp; Shohl\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-24T17:43:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dinsmore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Patent-protection-Header.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dinsmore.com\/publications\/federal-circuit-reiterates-the-urgency-of-opting-for-patent-protection-or-trade-secrecy-as-the-on-sale-bar-to-patentability-looms\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dinsmore.com\/publications\/federal-circuit-reiterates-the-urgency-of-opting-for-patent-protection-or-trade-secrecy-as-the-on-sale-bar-to-patentability-looms\/\",\"name\":\"Federal Circuit Reiterates the Urgency of Opting for Patent Protection or Trade Secrecy, as the On-Sale Bar to Patentability Looms - 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